Nicaragua and Honduras Monday were hunkering down for powerful Hurricane Felix, which was roaring toward Central America's Caribbean Coast at the most dangerous level 5. Jamaica, in the midst of elections Monday, and Grand Cayman were being spared the full force, with warnings downgraded to a tropical storm watch, the National Hurricane Centre in Miami, Florida, said. At 1500 GMT, the centre of Felix was located 585 kilometres east of Cabo Gracias a Dios on the Nicaragua/Honduras Border with sustained winds of 260 kilometres per hour. Warm Caribbean waters were expected to continue feeding the storm, which could reach the mainland as early as Tuesday morning. Heavy rains of 13 to 20 centimetres could produce "life-threatening flash floods and mud slides," the centre warned. Its path mirrored hurricane Mitch, which killed thousands of people in Honduras and Nicaragua nine years ago. Warm weather speeded Felix's quick rise to a major hurricane from a tropical storm on Saturday. Felix had already brought heavy rainfall to the Dutch Antilles islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao, but passed north of the islands, sparring them significant damage. Felix follows Dean as the second named hurricane in the region. Dean plowed across the Lesser Antilles, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Mexico - first slamming into the Yucatan Peninsula as a strong Category 5 storm before crossing the Gulf of Mexico and again hitting the country Wednesday as a weaker category two storm. It left 28 people dead.
